The War on Leakers

National Security and American Democracy, From Eugene V. Debs to Edward Snowden

"Four days before Pearl Harbor, in December 1941, someone leaked American contingency war plans to the Chicago Tribune. The small splash the story made was overwhelmed by the shock waves caused by the Japanese attack on the Pacific fleet anchored in Hawaii-but the ripples never subsided, growing quietly but steadily across the Cold War, Vietnam, the fall of Communism, and into the present. Ripped from today's headlines, Lloyd C. Gardner's latest book takes a deep dive into the previously unexamined history of national security leakers. The War on Leakers joins the growing debate over surveillance and the national security state, bringing to bear the unique perspective of one our most respected diplomatic historians. Gardner examines how national security leaks have been grappled with over nearly five decades, what the relationship of "leaking" has been to the exercise of American power during and after the Cold War, and the implications of all this for how we should think about the role of leakers and democracy. Gardner's eye-opening new history asks us to consider why America has invested so much of its resources, technology, and credibility in a system that all but cries out for loyal Americans to leak its secrets"--

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There are some very good points in this book, especially when the author writes on the history and backgrounds of the leakers, although he is somewhat sketchy about Assange of WikiLeaks [people continuously mention Assange and // sexual assault \\ without ethically qualifying that NO SWEDISH PERSON accused Assange of such an act to the police, it was the Swedish government who wants Assange for questioning on the possibility of a broken condom during consensual intercourse - - and given the millions of dollars equivalent spent by both the British and Swedish governments it is obvious his extradition to the USA is their goal - - compare how little, in comparison, was spent on the investigation of the death of Princess Di]!
Also, most annoyingly, the author incorrectly accuses the Kennedy brothers of attempting to assassinate Fidel Castro, when this has been thoroughly disproven! Author uses Thomas C. Reeves' unfortunate book as a source, but using Richard Helms, convicted of perjury before the US Congress, and also various crimes such as unlawfully destroying most of the MK ULTRA files wanted during the investigation by the Church Committee [which noted the murders of innocents, both here and abroad, including the crop dusting of a French town with LSD, causing mass destruction and some deaths there] is not a viable source, nor was John McCone, who unknown to JFK at that time, had strong connections financially to the Rockefeller family, and appointed Nelson Rockefeller's special assisstant, Gen. Schuyler, to restructure the CIA, and that the Col. Lansdale had been Nelson Rockefeller's special assistant during the Eisenhower Administration when Rockefeller was in charge of restructuring the Pentagon. [Later, Gen. Lansdale would be photographed in Dallas on the morning of the assassination of President Kennedy!] Also, McCone would later be on the board of ITT when Salvador Allende nationalized it, and urge Kissinger and Nixon to overthrow Allende - - so McCone was head of the CIA during JFK's murder, and with ITT during Salvador Allende's murder!
Some other criticisms on this subject as well, so cannot credit the author with exhaustive research, only above average research on this topic! [Author does have some important negative points on Gen. Hayden when he was in charge of the NSA - - very, very derelict, in my opinion!]